distressed 1 of 2

past tense of distress

distressed

2 of 2

adjective

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of distressed
Verb
After being alerted to a distressed whale in the area by anglers, an NSRI vessel was dispatched to the scene. Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 4 Sep. 2025 Crews altered course to reach the distressed vessel, which was just off the coast of Massachusetts’ capital city. Colson Thayer, PEOPLE, 4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
His heart was racing, his breathing distressed. Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Sep. 2025 Recent downgrades by ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s have raised questions on Afreximbank’s lending, especially to distressed African states. Alexander Onukwue, semafor.com, 3 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for distressed
Recent Examples of Synonyms for distressed
Verb
  • China's nuclear arsenal has especially alarmed Washington and its allies.
    Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Yet more investors are growing alarmed by efforts by the current administration to oust members of the Fed board of governors for new appointees.
    Sarah Min, CNBC, 29 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Looking for role models, troubled young men find Andrew Tate.
    Jay Stahl, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Laporta has repeatedly said that returning to the Camp Nou, which will have a capacity of 105,000 when finished, as soon as possible is crucial to boosting their troubled finances.
    Pol Ballus, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Unemployment has stayed relatively low in part because of dampened demand for workers as well as a depressed supply (people aging out of the workforce as well as reductions in immigrant workers).
    Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 6 Sep. 2025
  • This time producer Brad Ingelsby tapped Mark Ruffalo as a depressed and traumatized FBI agent leading a task force investigating a series of home invasions targeting drug dens in the area.
    Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Vic and Cali hadn’t wanted a wedding, but this had disturbed Vic’s parents.
    Bryan Washington, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Some civil servants working to bolster democracy around the world and at home, for example, were disturbed by shifts in foreign policy.
    Yvonne Zylan, The Conversation, 4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Dickinson appeared somewhere between perturbed and seething.
    Phil Thompson, Chicago Tribune, 19 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • No smear campaign distracted them.
    Shania Russell, Entertainment Weekly, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Toward the end of the first set and beginning of the second, Anisimova appeared distracted by the lights and the roof, which were closed due to heavy rain in New York.
    Adam Zagoria, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • As officers tried to determine if he was connected to the disturbance, Cusick allegedly became agitated and produced a firearm, Depue said earlier.
    Robert A. Cronkleton, Kansas City Star, 3 Sep. 2025
  • The phenomenon is caused by a chemical reaction the algae produce when they are agitated or disturbed — if they are grabbed by a predator, for example, or experience a surge of movement from a wave or swimmer.
    Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Such incidents, in the past, would have had her run home, and write about them furiously in her journal, worried that forgetting them would erase the blessings corresponded to it.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Luka’s policy change was motivated in part by regulatory pressure, especially in Italy, where officials worried that Replika posed a risk to minors and emotionally fragile users.
    Patricia Marx, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Distressed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/distressed. Accessed 13 Sep. 2025.

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